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This Auslese has an incredibly complex nose of blackcurrant and blackberries, with herbal and hay aromas. Fireworks on the palate and on the finish – an explosive, almost endless display of fine residual sweetness, with raisins and a hint of honey. Refreshing acidity and tingling minerality round off this virtuoso performance. Slightly salty on the finish.

Vintage

A year of challenges
The year began with a very warm spring that resulted in an early bud burst. Late frost posed a big threat – and three cold nights in April confirmed our fears, damaging shoots that were already well developed. A spell of fine weather thereafter helped the secondary shoots to grow quickly, partially mitigating the frost-related shortfall. Conditions were near perfect during flowering.
The spring heatwave also had a sting in its tail, however, with our young vines in particular suffering from considerable drought stress. On the other hand, our old vines benefited from the longer growing cycle thanks to their deep roots providing sufficient water nutrition. Time seemed to fly, and before we knew it our grapes had more or less ripened two weeks ahead of the long-term average – although a wet July and August had unfortunately caused some premature botrytis.
We mustered a 52-strong team to begin the preliminary harvest on 21 September – thus making the 2017 picking season the earliest in the estate’s history. Above all, we focused on meticulously selecting grapes for our Trockenbeerenauslesen and Beerenauslesen, as well as separating healthy from botrytis-affected fruit.
This hard work gave us stunning results. Piesporter Goldtröpfchen posted 192 degrees – our highest Oechsle reading on the Mosel. During what was a relatively short harvest, acidity levels fell from an initial high of 13 g/l to 9-10 g/l. Our grapes’ aromatics also changed day by day, developing ripeness and concentration.